All utterly ridiculous, and I'd wait for it to die down. There's no way of displaying all lines of those characters on a low-res screen. Never mind other characters that are part of the jianti character set, such as 赛 sai4 (comes out as 宀 + 共 + 贝 in low-res mode on my phone) and 赣 (comes out as 立 + 口 + 十 + 各 + 页 ).

Nokia should simply point out that all phones are forced to do this in low-res mode, and this is the first time a fuss has been made about it. Or just sit back and do nothing.

If they attempt to apply the law in question to mobile phones, it will take hundreds of them off the market and turn the technology clock backwards by years.

And what about all the signs by the streetside advertising 歺厅 with 仃車场?

Damn Chinese, can't even write their own letters correctly. I once asked about this from my EU Nokia friend and he said I should contact the Beijing office as they are responsible for the Chinese market. The people in charge (and with knowledge) spoke only Chinese so my question went unanswered.

The same character confusion happens with scrolling LED displays in busses etc. which makes reading even more difficult than the handwritten characters on some apartment buildings or businesses.

If there's a language law there - don't know if it really is enforceable, then local manufacturers should abide by it. Nevertheless, would it be nice to simplify them further, if they still turn out to be recognizable. Is it not what the simplified version is meant for?

Fascinating that chauvinism can assume such varied forms. A law that dictates the legality/illegality of the written form? Between traditional characters, simplified characters, and the numerous variations that people use when writing quickly and/or artistically, does that law really apply? Does the law apply to Mao Zedong's poetry, written in his own inimitable style, or to any of countless other artists who draw their characters "hen cao" and individualistically? Why not chalk up the Nokia and other versions to modern art and stop the childishness? Ask Mr. Zhang to stop being so "wu liao."

Todd L. Platek: Article 17 of the language law linked above covers circumstances under which non-standard writing may be used - this includes art and calligraphic inscriptions, history education, and variant surnames. It also provides a means for State Council departments to authorize other uses, which is what they ought to do in this case (if people can't be convinced that there's no problem in the first place).

Wow, some people really have nothing to do with their days. How hopeless is it that these public crusaders can't be bothered to spend their time dealing with the million other more important issues that China faces today, but instead waste resources and time on such absolutely nonsense. Should the governments of English speaking countries sue the various Chinese ad agencies, real estate development firms, government offices, t-shirt manufacturers... oh the list is too long to write here, for their regular rape of the English language?
Get a life.

A tough situation. Remember, foreign companies and Chinese companies will be held to different standards. A Chinese phone could take the input for "喜" and spit out something that looks like "粪" and nobody would notice as long as it was commonly agreed to be "喜". But a foreign brand misses one stroke and its a grave insult to Chinese civilization.

That's why Nokia needs to be seen to take this problem very seriously. The solution is for them to launch a nationwide crusade to stamp out compromise characters on all electronic devices, as their gift to Chinese literacy. They should start by lobbying vigorously for the government to mandate a minimum mobile phone size of 30cm by 10cm in order to provide for "properly rectified" display of Chinese characters.

As an interim measure, while people's pockets are being reinforced, Nokia could also propose upgrading all mobile phone software (not just Nokia's, mind you, but all phones in China) to display only one character at a time, to ensure complete detail, even for the fiddliest of fanti. The students of China are owed no less by the technology magnates of the world. Nokia could also propose to develop for the Chinese government at very reasonable rates a system that would monitor all SMS traffic and delete any messages with characters unlikely to render properly on a mobile phone screen. Better that characters be seen in complete correctness, or not at all.

Or they could just hang back and wait for the whole thing to blow over, which it will the second people discover that a machine shop in Guangxi has been using kitten grease to lubricate its drill presses, or some such other routine scandal.

Article 14 appears not to apply, whereas Article 15 could arguably apply. However, under a very broad reading of Article 11, "publications" could be argued by the State to include making public any information, and would that cover an otherwise "private" communication between two or more telephones; and would it cover communications broadly sent as advertisements to all users? To the extent it is a Chinese consumer's private wish to use a Nokia phone that shows its current set of characters, what is the public interest being violated (beyond the General Provisions)? How does that public interest, if any, outweigh the private interests of Chinese consumers to support the Nokia phone characters? But such analysis is unlikely to see the light of day, unless accompanied by a popular outcry for "leave our Nokia phones alone" by local consumers. Very unfortunate turn of events for Nokia, who likely will need to remedy the (non)problem. With the strong consumer report for Nokia in China, I suspect Nokia will come out of this even stronger.

这事多少年前就已经解释过了，现在又一位缺乏常识的“爱国者”与听风就是雨的记者再次把它炒作成所谓民族尊严问题。
手机的汉字显示受显示点阵大小的限制，手机这类手持设备的显示点阵受显示器大小的影响一般只有1 6X16。许多繁琐汉字的点阵不在屏幕点阵范围之内，只有经过压缩或变形，汉字才能显示。这种情况也是国家 制定的相关标准允许存在的。
这位陈先生的nokia如果是S60操作系统的，兴许哪天会有人开发能显示所 有笔画的第三方软件。但是每屏只能显示1、2个汉字，到时候陈先生又会为看一条短信要按几百下上下键而愤然 投诉了。
我想NOKIA的中文字库肯定不是自己编的，而是向中国的权威机构或企业购买的，应该符合国 家标 准。直性子的芬兰人肯定也搞不明白我们的“爱国者”为什么要投诉自己国 家的GB2312-80标准字库。

[[gfds says: This was all explained a number of years ago, but now a "patriot" bereft of common sense and a reporter who jumps to conclusions have once again hyped it up into a question of so-called national dignity.

A mobile phone's Chinese character matrix is limited by pixel-size; a handheld device like a moble phone typically supports a display matrix that's just 16x16. Many detailed Chinese characters do not fit into the screen's display matrix, so only by compressing them or changing their shape can those characters be displayed. This situation is permitted by relevant standards set up by the state.

If Mr. Chen's Nokia uses the S60 operating system, then perhaps one day someone will develop third-party software that will display every stroke, but each screen will hold just one or two characters. At that time, Mr. Chen will file an angry complaint when reading an SMS requires him to press the down button several hundred times.

I think that Nokia did not develop its own Chinese character set; rather, it purchased one from an official organ or a business in China. It ought to be in line with national standards. Those straightforward Finns must find it hard to fathom why one of our "patriots" would complain about his own country's GB2312-80 standard character set. - JM]]

中华人民共和国国家标准
< GB 5007.1-85 UDC681.3:003.324.1 >
信 息 交 换 用 汉 字
24×24 点 阵 字 模 集
24×24 Dot matrix font set of Chinese
ideograms for information interchange

中华人民共和国国家标准
< GB 5199.1-85 UDC681.3:003.324.1 >
信 息 交 换 用 汉 字
15×16 点 阵 字 模 集
15×16 Dot matrix font set of Chinese ideograms
for information interchange

[added links - JM]

Regarding the case of Mr. Zhang, I do not have the full story,it seems quite difficult to give any suggestion, but with part of the picture, I still have the opinions that under some assumption.
1.If the phone within the period of warranty of purchasing,Mr.Zhang can change a new onw with no doubt, in this circumstance he can not sue the nokia.
2.If the phone on that model all with the same misake that selling in Mainland China, and it is a serious problem that the China Government can take action against the nokie for the product are not comfort to the society of China,it is not allow to sell, also, relied on that point, the Government can consider to suspend the import license for such product, in consequence, the company might impose for a heavy pently.
also, the consumers can sue the nokia for compensation of the mistake accordingly.
I am willing to hear the comment on my responds